Accounts differ in ‘road rage’

Two men involved in what authorities are calling a road rage incident in Northport on Tuesday afternoon have given differing accounts of what happened.

By Stephanie TaylorStaff Writer

Two men involved in what authorities are calling a road rage incident in Northport on Tuesday afternoon have given differing accounts of what happened.A 33-year-old man told officers that he saw the driver of a Lincoln Navigator, William Dale Christian, 53, pull out in front of his wife’s car on McFarland Boulevard around 4:45 p.m. The man told officers that he followed Christian into the parking lot at Northport Electrical Supply, where he got out of his car and approached Christian. “According to him, he wasn’t trying to start trouble,” Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Unit commander Capt. Loyd Baker said.But Christian told officers that he felt threatened. He is accused of opening the door of his SUV and shooting the younger man in the abdomen. Baker said that he was being treated at DCH Regional Medical Center on Wednesday. He was awake and speaking with investigators, he said. Baker did not release the name of the victim, but other sources have identified him as Doug Larkin, a registered nurse. According to a 2007 wedding announcement in the Tuscaloosa News, Larkin is a 1995 graduate of Choctaw County High School and attended the University of West Alabama, where he earned his nursing degree. The 2007 announcement stated that he worked at DCH Regional Medical Center at the time.Christian owns Christian Machine Shop on Alabama Highway 171. Court records do not indicate that either man has a previous criminal record. Charged with attempted murder, Christian spent Tuesday night in the Tuscaloosa County Jail, charged with attempted murder. He was released Wednesday on $50,000 bail. Larkin was still being treated at DCH Wednesday.